Customer Relationship and Corporate
Governance in Sustainability of Business
Prof. Vinod Krishna U. Makkimane
Senior Faculty
Institute of Business Management & Technology
Banashankari 3rd Stage
Bangalore – 85
Abstract:
Sustainability is a
dynamic concept born out of the environmental debate of the last quarter
century. There is growing concern nationally and internationally about
biodiversity and protection of plants and animals and community based activity.
It is important to view sustainable efforts from global perspective that
addresses socio-economic and environmental issues.
Sustainable
Development as a norm has been accepted in the literature ever since the
publication of the Brundtland Commission report in 1987.The Brundtland
Commission defined Sustainable Development as that which "meets the needs
of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to
meet their own needs".
A primary goal of
sustainable development is to achieve a reasonable and equitably distributed
level of economic well being that can be perpetuated continually for many human
generations. It also implies using renewable natural resources in a manner that
does not eliminate or degrade them, or otherwise diminish their usefulness for
future generations. Sustainable development also requires depleting
non-renewable energy resources at a slow enough rate so as to ensure the high
probability of an orderly society transition to renewable energy sources.
Mahatma Gandhi has
observed long back that "There's enough in the world to meet the needs of
everyone but there's not enough to meet the greed of everyone". He has
also spoke about using the non-violence principal in sustainable development
something like this - "We cannot have ecological movement designed to
prevent violence against nature, unless the principles of non-violence become
central to the ethics of human culture."
Dictionary meaning
of “Sustain” is to last out or to to keep up or keep going.
Business needs to last out to fulfill its objectives and primarily for this
sustainability it is very essential for any business entity to give more
importance to the “Customer” aspect. My paper tries to explore the customer
relationship angle for sustainability of the business and also for the
sustainability of environment and natural resources.
Along with Customer
Relationship, a well defined Corporate Governance is required for corporate
sustainability.
In an interesting blog post Toby Webb
discusses whether governance ‘structures’ make any difference when it comes
to sustainability. His conclusion: “When it comes to governance and
sustainability, it’s all down to leadership, not committees, structures and
articles of association. Look at the best companies on responsible business. I
won’t name them here, but they just get on with it. They don’t hang around
waiting for committees to recommend action, they do things, things that matter
…”
The only issue with
great leaders is that they usually don’t stay too long in the same company.
It’s a very personality-bound asset. Governance, to the contrary, will remain
the backbone of a corporation, even if the leaders change. Top leadership with
a good corporate structure can initiate necessary policies and customer intensive initiatives
which help in the sustainability of any business.
Keywords: Customer Relationship, Corporate
Governance, Sustainability.
